Understanding Your Dog"The dog is a gentleman; I hope to go to his heaven, not man's." – Mark Twain, Letter to W D Howells, 4/2/1899

Went out for milk, came home with a puppy.

Zed was only 5 weeks old when my wife ‘rescued’ him from a pet shop in Adelaide. This photo shows him attempting to eat my shoe the day after the rescue.

Five weeks is way too young to be taken away from his litter, but there he was in a pet shop in Adelaide.

My wife and my daughter in law went out for milk and came home with a puppy!

To say that I was angry would be a galactic sized understatement!

But let’s put my anger to one side for a moment and talk about how Zed chose my wife.

Quite simply, he walked up to the glass in the window of the pet shop and poked his tongue out at her. It also helped that his sisters were a bit sleepy and he was full of life.

I wonder how many puppies get ‘chosen’ this way?

Probably quite a few.

What we now know about dog psychology would have told my wife that Zed was a high energy dog and probably not suited to our quiet, lay back lifestyle.

But then again, I don’t think it would have made any difference.

All through or history together, dogs and humans have been attracted to each other. Somewhere along the way, a friendly wolf worked out that if he hung around the human’s camp and helped him hunt, there would always be food and shelter. The humans worked out that dogs/wolves are excellent hunters and this made his job that much easier.

This partnership has been going on for a long time, so it made sense for Zed to approach the human; it was in his genes.

Let’s not sugar coat it……… pet shops are a terrible place to buy a dog!

The best dog for us would have been one of the sleepy dogs showing a bit of interest, but not too much.

It is a tribute to Zed (and to us) that he fits in so well with our pack. He has to put his natural tendencies to one side, and he does, because he wants to fit in. He wants to be a member of this pack. It is very difficult for him at times as he wants to be the enforcer, but that is not the role that he needs to play in this pack.

As you can see my anger died down and Zed made it to Melbourne. Not a single accident on our journey back. My leather seats came through without a mark.